Onyekachi, Oguchi’s older brother, told reporters on Tuesday that one of the Air Force officers shot him after he drove away from a checkpoint on Airport Road after they had waved him down.
“The Air Force personnel stopped my brother, and he stopped,” he added. “He moved after they had stopped him, assuming they had told him to go, not realising that they had told him to park by the roadside so they could search him and his vehicle.”
Photographs of the deceased bathed in blood, which circulated online, were seen by our correspondent.
The dead had been in Owerri for around three months, according to a source, and had just dedicated his second daughter in church two months ago.
When approached, Bala Elkana, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, said he couldn’t speak for another security organisation.
Simeon Simeon, a spokesman for the Nigerian Air Force in the state, said he was unaware of the occurrence.
“This is not correct. I’m not aware of the incident, but how could Air Force soldiers shoot someone?” he wondered.